Current Research

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Meet Kera, the long-tailed macaque

Earlier this week, I was lucky to catch this tweet from Stephen, executive director of Primarily Primate:

@MonkeysAndBirds (cont) Of the 25 macaques, about 10 of them have no names (only lab numbers tattooed across their chest, so we need good monkey names.

I tweeted Stephen and submitted a name. I was lucky that the name was actually picked! Meet #29209. Actually meet Kera. Kera is about 4 years old and judging from the pictures Stephen sent me, it looks like he really likes grapes!

I chose "Kera" because the word kera means monkey in Malay. Me and long-tailed macaques go a long way. Most don't know that it's these macaques that inspired me to be a primatologist when I was just a wee kid. Watching them groom each other peaked my interest in primates.

Anyways, not only did I named him, I actually sponsored him! For a small amount of $10.00 per month, you can sponsor one of these macaques as well. Here's a list of the macaques that now resides at Primarily Primates. Right now, 7 8 out of 25 macaques have been sponsored.

If you are interested in sponsoring one of these macaques (and I hope you do!), you can do so at Primarily Primate's website. Stephen told me that you can also email him with any questions at stephentello AT gmail.com.